1. Technical Field
This invention relates to hubs for reception of wire guides used in the placement of medical devices, and more particularly to hubs for reception of wire guides having a loop tip.
2. Background Information
Wire guides are elongate flexible members used to provide a path along which another medical device can be moved. The path provided by the wire guide can be used to navigate another medical device, such as a catheter through a body vessel. The wire guide provides an established path for placing other devices and eliminates the need for performing delicate navigation procedures for each device passed into the body lumen, for example when additional procedures are performed.
During placement of the wire guide, an operator must navigate the wire guide through a tortuous pathway in the body lumen due to the presence of natural bends and/or curves, or unnatural impediments, such as tumors, build-ups, and/or strictures. The operator may chose to navigate the lumen with a standard wire guide having a generally straight distal tip or a loop tip wire guide having a deformable loop at the distal tip. Loop tip wire guides are beneficial in navigating tortuous pathways to avoid having the end of the wire guide trapped in a pocket or sharp curve. The loop tip flexes against the pathway to move the wire guide distally to the treatment site.
Several types of catheters, including treatment devices, are used in endoscopic procedures that are delivered to the treatment site over the wire guide. These catheters typically include a hub connected the proximal end of the catheter through which the wire guide is inserted and extended out of the distal end of the catheter for navigation of the wire guide through the pathway. Conventional hubs typically include a luer connector at a proximal end of the hub and are connected to the catheter at a distal end of the hub. A loop tip wire guide is generally not designed to work with the conventional hub provided on the catheter. The loop portion deforms when the loop is advanced into the hub in such a way that the loop is not properly compressed at the loop portion so that the tip of the loop is narrowed for advancement into the narrower lumen of the catheter. Insertion of the loop tip wire guide into a conventional hub may deform the loop so that the loop widens and resists insertion in to the narrower lumen of the catheter.
What is needed is a hub for the reception of a wire guide that is suitable for receiving a conventional wire guide and a loop tip wire guide so that the wire guide is advanceable into the lumen of the catheter.